The War in Venice

by Glenn Haybittle

"The last task of love is to protect remembrance."
Venice 1938. Fausto's ambition is to be a film star. Meanwhile he works for the fascist secret police. Elisabetta is being taught how to paint using the techniques of the old masters by her father. And, to her horror, she is being courted by the head of the fascist secret police in Venice. Marcello works in his Jewish family's art supplies shop where he meets Elisabetta and becomes besotted by her. He moves about Venice in his beloved gondola.
Three young people whose lives have barely begun when war breaks out and whose integrity and courage will be tested in very different ways when the Nazis arrive in Venice.
A missing painting of Elisabetta's will come to hold the key of a pivotal mystery.

Genres: Italy, Historical Fiction, Holocaust, World War II

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 16, 2022

About the author

London - Lerici - Florence.

Represented by Annabel Merullo at PFD.

The Way Back to Florence is my first novel.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as compelling as the other two WW2 novels I've read by this author - The Way Back to Florence and In the Warsaw Ghetto. It focuses on the life of a Jewish family who own an art supply shop in Venice and a despotic artist and his obedient daughter. Most of the novel takes place before the Nazis arrive. It's well written and there are some beautiful and moving moments. But I think this author has exhausted the war and I'd like to see him tackle another subject.

[Monika · Rating 4 out of 5]

"With family we too often express our irritation and too rarely our appreciation. And yet we relentlessly go out of our way to be polite to strangers."
________
"Polite words, he learns, are often used to express rudeness."
________
"I would guess the public facade of most families is a construction of sentimental half-truths. Sometimes I think to learn an adult perspective on life is simply to become good at telling lies, mostly of a flattering nature and mostly to oneself."
________
One thing I really loved about this book is the writing style. I adored it.
Although it wasn't action packed, The war in Venice illustrated loss, tragedy, sacrifice, misunderstandings, relationships, not just romantical, but familial also, in such a beautiful way. It is a story set in 1940-1945 Italy during the Second World War
Thank you Net Galley for the arc :)

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Cheyne Walk for an arc of this novel set in wartime Venice. This is the kind of novel I love. Beautifully written, well-constructed, well-researched and, best of all, excitingly plotted. It brings Venice vividly to life and gets you to care about the characters, especially the Jewish family. I also enjoyed the depiction of the female artist and her struggles with her despotic father. The tension of the narrative steadily builds until reaching its peak with the SS roundups of the Jews and the aftermath.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful novel starts out in Venice during the 60's with Kate searching for a lost painting painted during WWII by her art teacher, who has passed away. Will she be able to locate the painting, and if so, who has it?

This novel takes us on a journey to war torn Venice where the fascists are cruelly hindering the lives of the Jews who are trying peacefully to stay out of harm's way and to survive.
The characters include Kate's art teacher, Elisabetta, who is yearning to be able to paint but is only allowed to assist her father, a painter, who aids the secret fascist police. Not until she is married is she able to begin painting. Marcello and Giulia, Jewish siblings, whose father owns an art supply store where Elisabetta purchases her father's supplies. Fausto, a want to be actor, who has no option other than to begrudgingly work for the secret fascist police rather than take on a lowly job to stay alive.

Haybittle has penned an intriguing and harrowing novel that tugs at the heart and makes you ache for Marcello as he desperately tries to woo Elisabetta, who seems to just want to be friends. Not until she is forced into marriage to an elderly fascist senior officer does her heart soften to Marcello. This is when she paints a beautiful rendition of him with his sister whom she must draw from memory since Giulia has passed away.

This novel grabs your heart and takes it on a roller coaster ride as you empathize with Marcello and Elisabetta and what could have been as well as despising Fausto for being the weasel that he is. A wonderful read that will stay with you long after you close the cover.

My thanks to #NetGalley and Cheyne Walk for the arc of this novel. This opinion and review are my own.

[Pj · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1960s in her studio in Venice Kate's teacher tells her her favourite painting was lost during the war and she fears it might have ended up in the warehouse at Auschwitz. The painting is still missing when her teacher dies. The narrative now goes back to the war years and the characters linked with the painting - Elisabetta who painted it, Marcello and Giulia, a Jewish brother and sister who are depicted in it and Fausto, an agent for the fascist secret police who will eventually help the SS in the roundup of Venice's Jews.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is typical of a well written historical fiction novel. First, it taught me a great deal about Italy, and especially Venice, during WWII. I learned more about how Jews were treated. Poor Marcello, a young non practicing Jew who was sent to safety in London at the beginning of the war, was cruelly returned to Italy by Great Britain when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany. He ended up dying in some camp towards the end of the war. I was reminded again of how many Jews were lost not just because of Hitler, but because of the refusal of the Allied countries to protect them, even when they had the opportunity to. I was also reminded of how powerless we all are against the actions of our own governments. No matter how we might feel personally against their policies, their is little we can do to fight them. And I was reminded of how as individuals, we can live a life quietly hiding our true selves; or boldly showing the world who we really are and what we really feel and believe. My only criticism of this book is in the author’s writing style. Until I adjusted, I wondered if this was written originally in another language and translation into English was why the writing sometimes feels so…unnatural?…to me. However, I’ve been unable to find anything about the author that would answer that question. Regardless, anyone who enjoys reading about WWII will want to add this book to their collection.

[Booknblues · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I saw that Glenn Haybittle had a recently released book, The War in Venice, I made sure to pick up a copy as I had loved his book The Way Back to Florence. I wish, I could say that I loved it as much. Despite the setting of Venice during the Second World War, I did not warm to this book.

I am sure some people will like it as well as Way Back to Florence, but for me the characters and their interactions did not capture me in the way I would have liked.

[Susan Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princess Fuzzypants here: The book begins with a former student of a deceased artist who wants to salvage her mentor’s works. The artist Elisabetta has touched the woman in ways she has failed to do with almost everybody in her life. The story then shifts back to Venice in 1938 where we meet three young people, Elisabetta, Fausto- a man of many faces, none of them true, and Marcello- a Jew with whom Elisabetta has crossed signals so that they are never allowed to explore their unrequited love for each other. It is Fascist Italy and while things do not deteriorate greatly until Mussolini joins Hitler in the Axis, theirs would have been a forbidden love.

Elisabetta is subservient to her controlling father. He then bargains her away to a Fascist bureaucrat she despises. They oddly form a comfortable truce but she never forgives her father for his betrayal. When it appears the vise is tightening for the Jews, Marcello is sent to London but upon the declaration of war, he is sent back to Italy, right into the viper’s nest. The three lives are entwined as each experiences the war from differing perspectives. The only constant for them is the city itself. It remains almost untouched.

It is an evocative and poignant story of missed opportunity, of cruelty and kindness and of how people so seldom get the lives they expect. The challenge, for them as for the reader, is how well they handled what is then placed in front of them. For our three there is no happy ending. There is a longing for what might have been but never could be. Five purrs and two paws up.

[Polly Krize · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Well written historical fiction. The arrival of the Nazis in Venice affects the lives of Elisabetta, Fausto and Marcello. The courage to survive against the brutality of the German invasion tests these young people in ways they had never imagined. Recommended reading.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps not gripping but very sharp and elegant. Venice is brought bewitchingly to life.